One Sunday each month we bring you a summary from Supreme Advocacy LLP of recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers a weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, to which you may subscribe. It’s a summary of all Appeals, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted from Feb. 16 – April 13, 2023 inclusive.

Oral Judgments

Criminal Law: Sexual Assault of a Child; Confessions
R. v. Chatillon, 2022 QCCA 1072; 2023 SCC 7 (40331)

There is a publication ban in this case. The judgment from the bench was by Chief Justice Wagner, . . . [more]

Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

PÉNAL (DROIT) : Le Tribunal sursoit au prononcé de la peine et impose une probation de 2 ans à une mère ayant omis de fournir les choses nécessaires à l’existence de sa fille, qui est décédée des suites de brûlures n’ayant pas été soignées en temps opportun; les circonstances exceptionnelles . . . [more]

Each Friday, we share the latest job listings from Slaw Jobs, which features employment opportunities from across the country. Find out more about these positions by following the links below, or learn how you can use Slaw Jobs to gain valuable exposure for your job ads, while supporting the great Canadian legal commentary at Slaw.ca.

Current postings on Slaw Jobs:

• Director, Policy and Public Affairs (Full-time) | Ottawa, ON
  (Federation of Law Societies of Canada)
• Policy Counsel (Full-time) | Ottawa, ON
  (Federation of Law Societies of Canada)
• Probate & Estate Administration Paralegal (Chilliwack) (Full-time) | Chilliwack, BC
  (Waterstone Law Group

Daniel Standing LL.B., Editor, First Reference Inc.

In classic fashion, arbitrator Kim Bernhardt in 2023 CanLII 10437 determined the punishment met the crime after reviewing the case’s mitigating and aggravating factors. A one-day suspension for insubordinate comments seems quite minimal, yet the grievor alleged that progressive discipline should have been applied, resulting in even lesser discipline. As the arbitrator would explain, that’s not how it always works. . . . [more]

Several times each month, we are pleased to republish a recent book review from the Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR). CLLR is the official journal of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD), and its reviews cover both practice-oriented and academic publications related to the law.

Law Dissertations: A Step-by-Step Guide. By Laura Lammasniemi. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2022. x, 190 p. Includes illustrations, bibliographic references, and index. ISBN 978-0-36764-230-3 (hardcover) US$160.00; ISBN 978-0-36756-877-1 (softcover) US$45.95; ISBN 978-1-00312-355-2 (eBook) US$41.35.

Reviewed by Leanne Notenboom
Law Librarian
Toronto Metropolitan University

Writing a dissertation or major research paper . . . [more]

Three months ago, I had never heard of ChatGPT. Now, a day doesn’t go by when I don’t find myself talking about it. How will it impact teaching? What about exams? And most importantly of all, how will it affect the practice of law and the work of the judiciary – for in the end, that’s what will determine the answers to the first two questions.

The locus classicus when it comes to the adoption of new innovations is a 1962 book by Everett Rogers, a professor of sociology at the Ohio State University, Diffusion of Innovations. In his . . . [more]

Recently, delegates from around the world visited xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations’ territory in Vancouver to attend the fifth International Marine Protected Areas Congress (“IMPAC5”). Three thousand attendees took part in the week-long event after it was postponed for over two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Canada is committed to protecting 30% of land and ocean by 2030 (known as “30 by 30”) – a goal reaffirmed through the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Agreement, which Canada signed in December 2022. Currently though, only about 14% of marine areas have been protected under Canadian law. To meet that goal . . . [more]

In “Open Access & Legal Scholarship” Revisited: Part I, Hannah revisited John Bolan’s “exceptions to the exception” of the lack of open access (OA) in law. She considered the success story of CanLII, commercial repositories, increased interdisciplinarity, and the access to justice movement. In part II we would like to consider some of the factors that have contributed positively to the growth of the “exceptions to the exception” but also note the challenges they raise for the future.

Many experts in the field have examined the broader trends in OA. For a comprehensive review on where Canada stands on . . . [more]

If you want a read a web page but it isn’t loading, you can look at the cached version on Google. Google makes a copy of each web page it indexes so that it can be used as a backup. 

You can access Google’s cached version in one of two ways. 

If you found the page through a Google search, simply click on the three dots next to the search result and then click on the button that says “cached”.

Alternatively, if you have the URL, go to Google and enter the link preceded by cache:, e.g. cache:https://www.gazette.gc.ca/accueil-home-eng.html. . . . [more]

Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

PÉNAL (DROIT) : Les peines d’emprisonnement à défaut du paiement des amendes imposées à un jeune en situation d’itinérance et aux prises avec des problèmes de consommation de drogues sont annulées; la juge de première instance ne s’est pas déclarée convaincue que le requérant possède la capacité de s’acquitter des . . . [more]

Applications and nominations are now being received for the Walter Owen Book Prize offered by the Canadian Foundation for Legal Research. The deadline for submissions is May 26, 2023. Additional information is available at:
https://cflr-fcrj.ca/walter-owen-book-prize/ . . . [more]